Having already had his mental state and end-of-season approach called into question by three former
Formula 1 World Champions,
Lewis Hamilton has now come in for criticism from his rivals too over his patchy Japanese Grand Prix performance last weekend.
Hot on the heels of Sir
Jackie Stewart,
Damon Hill and Niki Lauda's fears that he is on-track to throw the title away in much the same manner as he did this time twelve months ago [see separate story –
click here], and
Robert Kubica's description of his driving style as being at times ‘too much', ‘aggressive' and ‘dangerous' [see separate story –
click here], Hamilton has been challenged by two more competitors about his overly-assertive on-track manners following his desperately late-braking into the first corner at Fuji Speedway as he attempted to atone for a tardy getaway from the lights.
“What Hamilton did at the start at Fuji was not clean,” underlined reigning
F1 World Champion
Kimi Raikkonen, who was forced off the track by the Briton locking his wheels and almost slithering into the
Ferrari into turn one. “He didn't give me a chance to turn into the corner.
“You have to learn how to find braking points when you are six-years-old in go-karts. Obviously you should know how it goes at this level.”
“Hamilton makes up his own rules,” added Kubica, speaking to
Sport Bild, “particularly at the starts.”
“In the next driver meeting,
Jarno Trulli will ask [Hamilton] why he blocked him for two laps when he was a lap down,” added
Toyota's
Timo Glock – who also found himself on the receiving end of the McLaren-Mercedes star's aggression in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza last month – in an interview with German broadcaster
RTL. “Jarno lost one-and-a-half to two seconds, because Hamilton would not obey the blue flags.”
